Yesterday we offered a pair of passes for this weekend’s ExtraMooga to the commenter with the most debaucherous concertgoing experience. Some of you let us down (Hanson?!) and many of you did a lot of puking (keep it together, Grub readers). While getting hit in the face by a guitar during a Peelander-Z show impressed us, as did hiding out in a bathroom stall for hours to see Gunther, ultimately, kid_a’s tale of accidentally consuming not one but three LSD-laced grilled cheese sandwiches at an Allman Brothers concert captured the win. What can we say? We are a food blog. Congratulations, kid_a, we’ll be in touch. For the rest of you, ExtraMooga tickets are still available here.

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Food being the new rock — and chefs the new rock stars — this weekend’s ExtraMooga (the food-focused portion of the Great GoogaMooga, of which New York is a sponsor) promises to be extra epic. If you don’t have $250, fear not, we’re giving away a pair of passes for Saturday or Sunday to one lucky reader. Simply comment below by 6 p.m. tonight and tell us your most epic, debaucherous, unforgettable concertgoing experience. The worst, er, best, story wins. We’ll announce the winner tomorrow — now, onto the mud-wrestling tales.

Click here for complete contest rules.

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Free chocolate, right this way.

If you’ve checked out the lineup for this year’s New York Culinary Experience, put together by New York Magazine and the International Culinary Center, then you know that chefs like Mark Ladner, Floyd Cardoz, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten will spend this coming weekend teaching ticket holders the ins and outs of their trade. And we have good news: Grub has two tickets to Jacques Torres’s Chocolate Extravaganza session on Saturday afternoon, and we’re giving them away to one lucky reader.

Here’s how you win them: Just leave a comment below telling us the best cooking tip you ever learned. The person who drops our favorite wins the tickets (and the cocoa overload that will follow). Leave the comment on this post before 10:00 a.m. Thursday, April 26, and we’ll announce the winner that very same afternoon. It almost couldn’t be easier. Now tell us your tip!

Click here for complete rules.

Earlier: New York Culinary Experience Lineup Announced

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Filed Under: giveaways, jacques torres, new york culinary experience, nyce

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Cozy … and free!

Tomorrow, the International Association of Culinary Professionals kicks off its annual IACP Conference. This year’s theme: “The Fashion of Food: Where Food, Fashion and Media Connect.” In that spirit, we’re giving away two tickets to a special dinner at one of the city’s most fashionable restaurants, Saxon + Parole.

For the dinner, Saxon + Parole’s Brad Farmerie is teaming up with Portland, Oregon, chef Adam Sappington for a lamb feast. (With wine pairings, natch.) It all goes down this Sunday, April 1, at 7 p.m.

So, how do you win the tickets? Just follow Grub Street NY on Twitter and, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern today, retweet this phrase. That’s it. Easy, right? We’ll then pick a winner at random and you’ll be on your way to lamb feasting.

Click here to read the complete rules.

Grub Street NY [Twitter]
International Association of Culinary Professionals[Official site]

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Filed Under: free food, brad farmerie, iacp conference, saxon + parole

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As we told you earlier, this week marks the release of New York’s annual “Best of New York” issue. To coincide with the edition, we’ve once again teamed up with NYC Media to create video companions for some of this year’s picks. First up, the city’s best fried calamari, care of Parm, Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone’s ever-crowded Italian-American sandwich shop. Carbone talked to us about what makes the squid so damn good.

Best of New York 2012 [NYM]

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Filed Under: video feed, best of new york 2012, mario carbone, parm

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Taking place April 28 and 29.

New York Magazine and the International Culinary Center are once again teaming up for the New York Culinary Experience, which takes place this year on April 28 and 29. Chefs like Mark Ladner, Floyd Cardoz, and Dan Kluger will all be on hand, teaching classes and giving cooking demos. Check out the full roster here, or head right this way to see the schedule of classes so far. Then, find information on buying tickets — which include breakfast, lunch, and cocktail receptions on both days, as well as access to all the classes — here. A portion of the proceeds from the event will support the Future Chefs Scholarship, a program set up by the ICC. [New York Culinary Experience]

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Filed Under: foodievents, french culinary institute, international culinary center, new york culinary experience, nyce

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We’ve got something for everyone.

Food lovers can be a tough crowd to shop for. After all, there are only so many useful kitchen gadgets and interesting bottles of Scotch you can give. But who better to offer excellent foodie gift-giving advice than some of the country’s best chefs? We asked, and they were happy to oblige. So check out this year’s edition of the Grub Street Gift Guide for more than 20 ideas — organized by price, in ascending order — from chefs like Marcus Samuelsson, Lydia Shire, Michael Chiarello, Daniel Humm, and plenty of others.

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Drinks are on us.

New York has teamed up with HowAboutWe for New York Dating — and this Wednesday they’re hosting a Lower East Side gallery walk through Lesley Heller Workspace, Lost Weekend NYC, Dino Eli Gallery, and Stephan Stoyanov Gallery. But not only will there be art and single members of the opposite sex: Thanks to Beck’s, there will also be free beer. Head here for more details and information on signing up.

The Art of the Date: A Gallery Walk On the LES [New York Dating]

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Roast chicken from Saxon & Parole.

Like it or not, all signs of summer are fast disappearing. But good-bye to sun and warmth also means hello to all the amazing food that fall brings with it: brothy stews; sweet, earthy root vegetables; tender roasted meats; and of course lots of warming whiskey drinks. (Bloggers have to fortify, after all.) To help everyone prepare for the sweater-weather months ahead, Grub Street has rounded up the 41 new things we’re most looking forward to trying this fall. The list is a mix of upcoming dishes from new restaurants, new dishes from old restaurants, and a few season-appropriate favorites we’ve been missing all summer. So check out the list, then take to the comments and let us know what it is you can’t wait to get your hands on.

And when you’re done checking out our picks, make sure you head over to our other Grub Street editions — Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco — to see what they’re looking forward to this fall.

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Dinner at Tennessee’s Blackberry Farm.

El Bulli may be closing its doors, but the concept of the food-lovers’ pilgrimage is hardly going with it. Some people say the journey is more important than the destination — Grub Street says the journey is bunk if there isn’t something tasty waiting at the end. When summer hits and the urge to skip town strikes, it’s especially tricky to shake the desire to seek out the most unique, interesting, and, yes, delicious, food around. That’s why Grub Street’s editors have come together and scoured the country (yes, the whole country) to find a destination in every state that is worthy of your food fanaticism — okay, two in California, since getting Grub Street’s San Francisco and L.A. editors to agree on just one place would have been an impossible task. As the Michelin Guide is fond of saying, every one of these stops is worth a special journey.

That doesn’t mean Grub Street just plucked 50 fancy places and called it a day: All around the country, “great” food can come in some seriously unexpected places. So whether that means a high-end farm resort nestled in the Smoky Mountains; a tour of the country’s best bourbon distilleries; or a way out of the way, hole-in-the-wall chicken shack that serves up some of the best birds in North Carolina, we’ve looked for restaurants, tours, festivals, resorts, and activities that are well worth any amount of time it takes to get there. (In some cases, that’s a lot of time.)

Each and every one of these food-centric destinations has something that our editors find undeniably appealing — so much so that you could say these spots are all must-visits for the elite eaters out there (if not for bucket list purposes, then certainly for bragging rights). Grub Street by no means endorses the idea of hitting all of these spots this summer (though if you do attempt the feat, by all means let us know), but no matter where you find yourself over the next few months, know that there’s a journey (and a great destination) waiting for you.

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Clockwise from lower left: knife sharpener, charcoal, smoker, grill, and remote thermometer.

Dads are notoriously difficult to shop for, but sometimes the requisite sports book or the annual tie are just too lame. This Father’s Day, encourage your pop to reach his grilling potential by trading in that dusty bag of Kingsford charcoal and greasy, rickety grill for some tools the pros use. Below, see gift recommendations from the country’s leading meat wranglers.

“We use our Robot Coupe processor ($495) to make our spice rubs. It’s great, because you can use it to chop and mix seasonings really well and it saves you so much time. Ours is huge, but you could easily get by with a smaller one at home.”
—Jason Tremblay, Soul Fire Barbecue in Boston

“The grills that Grill Works (from $2,475.00) makes are insane. They are a must for anyone who is serious about grilling.”
—Ryan Farr, 4505 Meats in San Francisco

“Avoid that ‘grilling set’ that includes a fork and silly long knife that comes in a specially designed box as if it was a set of dueling pistols. Most importantly, you need a well-made pair of tongs that gives you a firm grasp on whatever you’re grilling. The ones I use are made by Vollrath (from $8).They should be long, at least fifteen inches, have a non-heat conducting handle, and a proper spring device allowing them to open when you relax your grip. Try it out in the store before buying.”
—Jonathan Burrows, chef-owner Mr. Cecil’s California Ribs in Los Angeles

“The Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker ($299) is pretty much my favorite thing. When I barbecue at home, this is what I use. Barbecue is all about a consistent temperature: keeping things slow and low. This is one of the best smokers on the market and you can use it to make all kinds of beautiful meats.”
—Andy Husbands, chef-owner Tremont 647 in Boston; team member IQUE BBQ

“Every father needs to have the following grilling essentials: A twenty-pound bag of Nature-Glo Hardwood Charcoal, which is a combination of hickory and oak and burns very hot and clean. Then he’ll need a basting sauce pot and brush from Williams-Sonoma ($29.95), and of course Zeke’s Dry Rub ($5.95). And for the father who has everything, a Milano Arosti Grille from J & R Manufacturing (priced on request). It is a restaurant quality grill-rotisserie combination.”
—Michael Rosen, owner-pitmaster, Zeke’s Smokehouse in Los Angeles

“A knife sharpener ($69.95) is essential for good barbecue. Every morning I trim brisket. In order to get the fat off accurately and without wasting any of the good meat, I need a sharp knife. If it’s not sharp, I might as well be using my hands. I use the old-fashioned kind; a long pointy one called a honing steel.”
—Demetri Botsaris, owner, Phoebe’s Bar-B-Q in Philadelphia

“One of my favorite barbecue devices is a good Weber thermometer. Two of ‘em, actually: an instant-read thermometer ($12.99) that you can put in the meat and get a temperature right away, and a remote thermometer($39.99) that you can use to monitor the temperature while it cooks. I like to cook a lot of loin of pork, chicken, stuff like that, and the worst thing you can do is overcook it. So you insert the probe into the meat, put the meat in your smoker or on the grill, and then you can set the alarm for what temperature you want it to beep at. I like to take my pork out at 140, 145 degrees, so the alarm beeps then when it heats that temperature: ‘Your meat is done! Your meat is done!’ You know, sometimes people get distracted, they walk away, and then twenty minutes they’re like ‘Aah! I forgot the meat!’ With the remote thermometer that never happens.”
—“Big Lou” Elrose, pitmaster, Wildwood Barbeque in New York.

“A good smoker is what you really need. Weber Grill make a good model ($390.00). You can pick those up at Home Depot. That’ll get the job done.
—Robert Adams, Honey 1 BBQ in Chicago

“There’s one thing I use a lot, though I don’t know if I’d recommend it for the everyday backyard barbecue: It’s a weed burner, which is kind of like a flame thrower. You can pick it up at Home Depot, you attach it to a propane tank, and it puts out like 100,000 BTUs of gas. We use it to start our charcoal really fast, rather than using lighter fluid or a chimney starter with newspaper. You just hit the coals with the weed burner for like a minute, and you’re ready to go. It’s sold for home use — just be careful.”
—Robbie Richter, pitmaster, Fatty ‘Cue in Brooklyn

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Filed Under: user’s guide, barbecue, bbq, father’s day, grilling, pitmasters

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Top Chef premieres tonight on Bravo (9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific), and the seventh season is set in our nation’s capital. There’s nothing Washington likes more than a good trashing vetting, so Grub Street thoroughly examined the backgrounds of the six chefs who represent the cities of New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. We found what they forgot to make private on Facebook, tracked their Twitter feeds, and interviewed their colleagues. Read our dossiers, below.

Kevin SbragaCourtesy of Bravo

Kevin Sbraga, 31, Philadelphia
Sbraga’s bio boasts of stints at Georges in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and Union Trust and Garces Restaurant Group (GRG) in Philadelphia. Grub Street interviewed several people who worked with Sbraga at Union Trust and GRG, but all refused to speak on the record. Today he’s the executive chef at Rat’s Restaurantat the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, which is operated by Starr Restaurant Organization.

The son of a baker parents, Sbraga went to Johnson & Wales, and in 2008 won the “Best Meat Presentation” award at the Bocuse d’Or qualifier. Philadelphia magazine referred to him in a recent interview as a “chef’s chef.”

Lynn GigliottiCourtesy of Bravo

Lynne Gigliotti, 51, Philadelphia
Gigliotti is a Philly Restaurant School and CIA graduate. She worked for Gordon Keith Wagner Caterers and later Restaurant La Terrasse in the eighties, and then spent some time on the line at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta and the Jean-Louis at the Watergate. She owned and operated her own restaurant, Grappa, in Atlanta, and now teaches at the CIA.

“I remember that she was quiet and a little shy, but was an extremely talented chef,” Gigliotti’s former boss Gordon Keith Wagner told us. “Sometimes people get the nuts and bolts of cooking, but not everybody has the nuts and bolts and the taste buds to go along with it. She had a great sense of taste and was extremely creative. I wouldn’t say she was the most level-headed chef — I don’t think there is such a thing — but she was the most passionate.”

According to Gigliotti’s Facebook page, her favorite quotation is: “Let me refer you to my web site, WWW.gofuckyourself.com.” Her profile says: “If you like Tom Robbins and Carl Haissen books, you will get my sense of humor.”

Jacqueline LombardCourtesy of Bravo

Jacqueline Lombard, 33, Brooklyn
Jacqueline Lombard (Jacqui to her friends) is “an incredibly energetic, curious, and talented woman,” Otto pastry chef Meredith Kurtzman told us of her former sous. “She was a valuable part of the team.” Lombard joined Otto after ditching her advertising career to attend the French Culinary Institute. When she left the restaurant to start a catering company, Mario Batali introduced her to Stella McCartney, a relationship that spawned her niche as caterer to the fashion people, a crowd not exactly known for their robust eating habits. (In a 2008 Paper magazine interview, Lombard called McCartney her “mommy client,” and mentioned cooking for luminaries like Elle MacPherson and Jil Sander.)

After a few years in the fashion-catering trenches, Lombard returned to life as a restaurant chef when she signed on last February at the Gansevoort 69, the restaurant that replaced beloved meatpacking district diner Florent. She wasn’t there long — the timeline indicates that she left right around when Top Chef began shooting. Lombard was briefly affiliated with a little-known restaurant called Leña, but she’s now part of the team at Greenpoint’s Café Royal. (Owner Cody Utzman explained that he, Lombard, and Lombard’s roommate, Natty Felder, all share chef-ing duties at Café Royal and its sister restaurants, Brooklyn Standard and Papacitos.) Lombard is affiliated with the website nyherald.com, (her Top Chef bio lists her as the site’s “Dining and Wine Editor,” though the website itself — which has updated its dining section twice in 2010 — refers to her as a “contributor.”) And through it all she’s stayed tight with the fashion set, staging “pop-up restaurants” for the likes of Balenciaga and Jil Sander as recently as yesterday, per her Facebook page.

Though perhaps not entirely relevant to her Top Chef prospects, we cannot let pass without comment Lombard’s contribution to 2009’s “25 Random Things” Facebook meme. These range from the mundane (she was born Amanda Jacqueline Moffat) to the extraordinary (the last name “Lombard” came courtesy of her ex-husband, who, in a stunning narrative twist, turned out to be her half-brother’s second cousin). Other spectacular Chef Jacqui facts: She was a lingerie model “for five minutes”; she’s had rubella, Lyme disease, viral meningitis, and hepatitis A; she’s double-jointed; she claims to have four nipples; and when she was 6 years old she watched the movie The Last Unicorn and became convinced she was a unicorn trapped in a human body. Her Twitter account, wisely, is locked.

Ed CottonCourtesy of Bravo

Ed Cotton, 32, New York
A second-generation CIA grad, Ed Cotton is also a second-generation chef. Chef Ed Cotton Sr., ran the kitchen at the now-closed Cottage Crest Restaurant in Waltham, Massachusetts, exposing his son to the cooking bug early. Cotton Fils studied Culinary Arts as a student at Lexington, Massachusetts’s Minuteman Career & Technical High School. (On the school’s website, a teacher praises him as someone whose “natural talent for cooking and love of food was obvious.”) When Cotton finally landed in New York, he spent five years working for Daniel Boulud at db Bistro Moderne and Daniel — and got his first taste of TV fame when he signed on as Cat Cora’s sous-chef on Iron Chef America. She calls him her “dear friend and respected sous-chef.”

In the last three years, Cotton’s logged serious hours hopping from one high-profile position to another: In 2007, he was rumored to be the opening chef at Bar Boulud, but instead landed at Veritas (from which he was shortly fired). Cotton ran the kitchen at BLT Market for a little over a year, before picking up yet another gig last fall launching the Tribeca restaurant Plein Sud, which opened in April. (He’s currently hiring for line cooks!) Despite all the marquee executive chef-ing, Cotton does have dreams of opening his own place someday: He told the Waltham Daily News Tribune that he’d like to name a restaurant Alfonsina, in honor of his Sicilian grandmother.

According to Cotton’s not-so-private Facebook page, he doesn’t like to shop at Tribeca Whole Foods, listens to Jane’s Addiction and Fugazi, and likes to watch that painting show with (R.I.P.) Bob Ross.

Amanda BaumgarutenCourtesy of Bravo

Amanda Baumgarten, 27, Los Angeles
“Don’t underestimate Amanda,” warns chef Ben Ford of Ford’s Filling Station, where Amanda Baumgarten worked before her recent turn as sous-chef at Water Grill. The 27-year-old had her start in the London kitchens of La Tante Claire and Le Gavroche after training at the city’s Cordon Bleu, followed by sous-chef stints for respected L.A. names like Melisse and Patina. And if the Facebook photo of her firing a handgun wasn’t enough to terrify the competition, Ford calls her “tough” and “battle-ready.” “[She's] one of the most talented cooks I’ve ever worked with. I used to throw her curve-balls she routinely hit out of the park, so no doubt she will do well in this competition.” But does this Scorpio with a background in butchery also have a softer side?

Brigitte Kouba, of Brentwood’s Literati II, went to high school with Baumgarten and thinks the chef could win the competition by strength of character alone. “Amanda has always been fiercely intelligent, fabulously charismatic, and wildly creative,” Kouba tells Grub Street. Her intelligence will make her a strong competitor, her personality will make her a favorite among viewers, and her creativity in the kitchen will blow the judges away. She’s smart and savvy with a great sense of humor, so she definitely has what it takes to become the next Top Chef.”

If that’s the case, Baumgarten may have less time to pursue her Facebook interests, which include “harper’s, new yorker fiction podcast, [and] ira glass.” She claims to not own a television, but that’s probably why she has so much time to read. Favorite titles include In Cold Blood, Cat’s Cradle, and Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. Follow her on Twitter, just in case she decides to post more than three times.

Alex ReznikCourtesy of Bravo

Alex Reznik, 33, Los Angeles
The six-foot-two Alex Reznik made his name cooking in Vegas at Lutece and Paris Casino before upping the culinary cred of Ivan Kane’s nightlife empire by opening Café Was with the impresario. “I had finally met a kindred spirit,” Kane says of their first encounter. “Café Was needed a bohemian approach and a theatricality of cuisine that had confused others I had met who were less daring and unwilling to turn dining into an adventure.”

A Brooklyn native who cites Paramus, New Jersey, as his hometown on Facebook, Reznik adopted California as both home and culinary inspiration, focusing on seasonal cooking and local ingredients, with actual farmers’ market sightings to prove it.

Long before he was so sustainable, Reznik grew up eating his mother’s Russian cooking and has his foundation in traditional French cuisine. However, after losing 30 pounds in 2007, Reznik flipped his style to include healthy substitutions (like replacing butter with flavored vegetable stock in risotto) and introduced veggie and vegan tasting menus last July.

Ivan Kane promises that viewers won’t forget the creative chef, who’s known for lollipop frog’s legs and Thai duck-leg confit. He teases, “Plowing ahead where angels fear to go, Alex has a real outlaw spirit in his approach to cooking. What completes the package, however, is a real dose of humility. He’s a character, equally as comfortable in the front of the house as he is in the kitchen. This combination of compelling charm and distinctive, delicious food, I am certain, will take him far on season seven of Top Chef.”

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Filed Under: top chef, alex reznik, amanda baumgarten, ed cotton, jacqueline lombard, kevin sbranga, lynne gigliotti, top chef d.c., top chef season 7

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